The sahrawi people

History
The sahraoui people live in the southern part of Morroco from the city of Guilmim to the little village of Lagwira there are essentially a nomadic people they used to go from Morroco to Mauritania to the Mali they were and are essentially living of the trades nowdays they essentially sell clothing and traditional medicine but their was a time when the sahraouis traded jewleries gold textiles and slaves all the way down to the niger river it was a time of great prosper for the region and created a wealthy elite families of traders. But it came to an end in the beggining of the 20th century with the french colonialism monopolized the ressources of western africa and stopped the trades between the Niger to Southern Morroco and when the Spanish colonialism appropriated the Sahara and restricted the movements of the Sahrawi people which forced them to sedentarize in cities like Al ayoun or al dakhla. The society had a system ressembling the Indian caste system with the arabic tribes of Banu Hassan at the top the Amazighs tribes and then the Marabout who are known for their piety and then the slaves . The Arabs and Amazighs could intermarry but it was restricted to the heads of the tribes so they can create bonds between tribes .Marabouts only married amongst themselves .And then the slaves where forbidden to marry outside their class and even if a slave woman have a baby with a freeborn that doesn't automatically free him like it says in the Quran but he access to a higher status by serving his half brothers until his death and until his death he will be considered a lowborn .But in the 1970s the Morrocan government outlawed these practices but there is still prejudices against lower casts.

Clothing
Men wear the daraa in the desert which is a 4 meter large jellaba with opening in the side in the desert there is two colors white and blues with a amama white or black it help them cool off and generally decorated with golden ornaments.They are not all the same the ones that are heavily decorated are more expensive than the more simpler ones. It helps determinate the status of the man in society. But the arabs and the amazighs wear it the same way it helps determine the class but not the ethnicity or the tribal belonging.

Expensive daraa with heavy ornaments

Simple daraa with no ornaments

Women wear melhafas they are very longue veils that can be up to nine meter long they are worn by both Amazigh and Arab women it is a symbol of modesty and is worn majoritarily to this day there is different types of melhafas. The ancient ones have two peace a longue white robe and a black melahfa on the top which was soaked into product called al nilla it is a product extracted from a blue stone only available in the region it helps maintain a porcelaine skin. There is another type of melhafa made of pure silk sewed by hand with finer details and colors and it is more expansive and the other type of melhafa called melhafa al Gass which is made with cheaper fabrics imported from Yemen India Oman and the united arab emirates generally with grosser details and colors it is very popular right now because if it cheaper and easier to wash .

Silk melhfa with fine details 

Ancient Melahfa

Cheaper melhfa al gass with grosser details and colors